Vintage 8mm Mini Movie Viewer Repair!
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- Опубликовано: 23 фев 2020
- One of my favorite little gizmos is on the fritz - time to do a little repair video and some about the interesting history of these cool film loop toys. Enjoy!
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I love "fixing" simple little toys like this.....just a silly small sense of accomplishment to make your day brighter.
Very cute! Film stuff is always interesting for those of us born just past its time, in the VHS era, so I can't wait to see more!
VHS, your so young :)
There's something special about actual film. I was one of those kids who always volunteered to be the projectionist when films were shown in class back when I was in school. I have a small 8mm collection, mostly home movies, and a small 16mm collection, mostly Lassie episodes and a few comedy shorts. I also have a few silent 16mm Rin Tin Tin shorts, but no silent 16mm projectors, yet. I need to learn how to tune up my projectors. I'll be looking forward to your projector videos. I have two Singer/Telex Instaload XL 16mm projectors and a Bell & Howell slot load 16mm projector. The Bell & Howell has a sound drum issue. It doesn't hold at proper tension against the sound drum.
As a kid back in the early 1970s, me & my friend had this pubescent dumbass phone prank routine. He'd call somebody randomly, then when they answered, he'd' say "Lassie! Come here, girl!" And then I would whistle the theme song, then we'd say "and starring ? as Timmy...(and the whole cast if they hadn't hung up yet)...and Lassie as Lassie"! Wow - we were weird back then - but creative! (We coulda just called/asked: "Is your refrigerator running?" "Yes!?' "Well you better catch it!" Taha!
For some reason this video reminded me of all the fun times I had with my old Viewmaster. I had one disk with pictures of dinosaur dioramas that I must have looked at a 100 times.
Yes. Thanks for reminding me about the dino dios. I can see it in my mind right now. Thanks again.
I had the one from Kenner. It was branded with the six million dollar man and came with the clip showing the beginning of the show. Loved it. Played with it for hours!
Wow! been looking all over for the name of that. I remember having one in the early 80s. Thanks for sharing
Aw it's adorable! I had no idea such toys existed. The clear pink plastic very much looks like lots of 90s and early 2000s toys. Who knows when it was actually made. Odd that they'd still be making a film toy in those years haha
I'm in the UK, I remember having one of those back in the late 80s/early 90s with a few different films. Thanks for the trip down memory lane :D
Knew it as soon as I saw it. Didn't they give them away with The Beano at some point?
I'm surprised it came apart so easily. I half expected it to need a "Big Clive" 'Spudger' to get into it - And then it turns out to have actual screws holding it together!
This little gadget reminds me of the kind of toys we could get in the 1960's, and not that different to the mini TV set style which also loaded a small film cartridge. It had a back light, and the image appeared on the 'TV' screen, but I'd bet the drive mechanism was the same. It ran on one 'U2' (D Cell) 1.5v cell. If I remember correctly, there was also a robot style viewer, probably designed to appeal more to boys.
Certainly beats movies on your smart phone!
Cool. When we were little my sister had a hand cranked Disney 8mm viewer with about 10 (very edited down) films. Spent hours watching.
Victory once again. Repairing silly stuff is often the most satisfying for me. I have a Pee Wee Herman doll with a pull-string voice box that I should dig out of my pile and pay some attention to...after I scan ebay for a moving image treasure 😉 Brava
I had one of these with a clip from T2 - the liquid terminator jumping his bike from the building to the helicopter. Getting mad nostalgia now!
Nostalgia? That's like last week to me.
@Fran Blanche Pro tip: *lightly* (wipe) tin both contacts & alcohol wash off the flux. Upgrades: put a tiny bit of any grease on the contacts to block air, and add a tiny piece of self-adhesive weatherstrip behind the motor contact to increase contact pressure. I've done these same fixes on many cheap imports using the same design. It would likely require removal of the battery terminal to avoid melting the housing, but the one-time fix should outlive you, *and* whomever might inherit it... If you go a step further and clean & lube the drivetrain (gear shaft, gear ends, gear threads, and motor bushings), it may run a bit quieter. Good luck!
Back when Kinder Eggs had good toys in them there was a mini movie camera with a similar setup. I think they had cartoon 'frames' that stuck to a cylinder on the inside.
I still have one of these! I bought it at a planetarium gift shop when I was 10 in 2005. It's black and white and shows footage from one of the Apollo moonwalks. Love your videos!
I had one of these as a kid back in the 80s but never knew they made other loops for it. Mine came with a clip of a lunar rover exploring the moon.
My all time favorite toy when I was a kid was a Kenner Give A Show Movie projector. I got a lot of use out of it for sure.
Just fixed my childhood viewer not unlike this one... mine is orange and I’m watching captain America right now but just wanted to say THANK YOU FRAN ! Without stumbling upon this guide I might have tossed it out... I will be checking out more of your content ! Thanks again
I had completely forgotten those hand-cranked fisher price movie viewers, I loved that thing!
I got one of these in late eighties/early 90s. I still have it with about 4 of the movies. Fun to see it somewhere else.
I remember seeing something like that back in the 70s. It used a loop type cart. In also had one of those fisher price viewers. I took the film out and put it on a reel.
Dang..this brought back some amazing childhood memories..Here in Mumbai, the Apollo Mini Movi was available briefly in the late 80s..I had the Heckle and Jeckle cartridge..But i remember my friends had Mighty Mouse, Bruce Lee cartoon & Spiderman cartoon..The cartridges were quite expensive and the metal pin that moved the reel would get stuck so often..Was not designed too well..I have a feeling the ones sold here were 'Chinese made' duplicates
That was more interesting than I thought it would be.
Very cool! I remember i had something similar as a child in the UK in the early 1960's but it was just a kind of black plastic lollipop holder with an eyepiece and a completely open hand-crank arrangement. There was no cassette, just a small loop of film that you had to load onto the cranker manually. I remember one "film" was of the Queen's coronation in 1953, and another was of Ben Turpin or Harold Lloyd from the 1920's.......but a loop only lasted a few seconds as you cranked it at varying speeds(!). But it did work and was kinda cool when my home did not own a TV at that time anyway. Thanks!
Ahhh I had one of these! With a Batman Returns clip, this is great!
Yeah me too - I think it was the bit where he went up a wall in the bat mobile
The strip is from "Betty Boop Stopping the Show" 1932 … 88 years old content. It is on YT.
That's cool as hell!
Isn't it satisfying to repair/resurrect something that was made to throw out. Looking forward to the projector and film content too. Cheers.
Thanks for sharing, Fran.
I'm surprised the 'little nub' sprocket doesn't shred the 40 year old super 8 film. Hope it keeps working for a few more memories!
Welcome back Fran always enjoy your videos you are a master at your craft in my eyes. You really know your stuff when it comes to electronics
I just love your franlab theme-song
I have one of those from the 80s. It had a spiderman and his amazing friends cartoon loop on it. Still have it. Still works. Its just a small electric motor basically.
Works surprising well for such a simple little player. I still barely remember the Fisherprice versions my sister and I grew up with. I had no idea there was other little versions till now. I've recently had a friend revive the '8mm' bug with me. Ended up picking up a Kodak 8mm projector from the thrift store as a result. My dad used to be quite the shutterbug back in the day, and now he has a way to go through his small Super8 archive again. I hope your film digitizing project goes well. I kind of want to do something similar with our 8mm films as well.
A treat especial for sure thx fran 😃
OMG! I totally remember having one of those growing up!!! Thank you for this lil bit of nostalgia! Love it! ;)
Super excited for the upcoming video on projector mechanisms!
I got to hand it to you you also have some considerable talent for freehand art with that sketch at the beginning of the video !
Nice to see one of Dave's meters in the wild.
Super cool!
I had one of the Kenner/Hasbro crank models back in the day. It's long since gone, but I had a fair amount of fun with it at the time. I've never seen the tiny one like you have. Thanks for bringing back the memories.
I had the Fisher Price movie viewers back in the early 80's with Disney and Sesame Street films!
Cool 8mm Mini Movie Viewer. I love Betty Boop. You fixed it that is awsome.
Glad to see you back!
Man. This is so cool. I love neat stuff like this. Now I know what that Kodak film viewer that I saw at a thrift store today was for.
I had a big six million dollar man version of these. You'd put your six million dollar figure in the seat so he could apparently watch movies of himself. 2 D batteries illuminated the film and it'd be advanced by hand cranking it. But my favorite part of his outfit was the backpack that was an AM crystal radio that you could barely tune by twisting the backpack antenna.
I had this in the beginning of the 2000's. With atleast 5 different "movies". It was sold in a cheap stuff store that doesn't exist anymore. In Sweden.
I remember having one of these and I used watch this thing every night before I went to sleep when I was 5 or 6 and my favorite was knight rider. Also had a-team and dukes of hazzard. I alot of em.
Galoob made them in the 80’s and they were called “Sneak Previews”. You could get Spider-man, Superman, Knight Rider, Punky Brewster, etc cartridges for them. My brother had one and about a dozen cartridges. Used to keep him busy during car rides.😀📽
Aaahh!! I had one of those Galoob Sneak Previews toys and 6 loops! My evil older sister stole a bunch of my stuff back in 2018 and it was among that.
The loops I had:
Knight Rider, Airwolf, The A-Team, Voltron, Inspector Gadget, and Thundercats.
As for the Fisher Price movie viewer, whenever one of those cartridges jammed, I would break it open and recover the film. So I have a 8mm film spool of several cartridges.
I had to fix my Galoob viewer many times. It was usually just cleaning all the contacts which got it working, provided the motor was good.
Thanks for a bit of Betty, she is soooo cool. Just like you Fran.
Seems like it's such a simple mechanism to play those 8mm reels, one could design and 3D print a player for them complete with backlight or a scrim to project the image onto. If one had the wherewithal and the 3D printer to do so. I have neither, unfortunately.
i dont have the 3d printer but i know how print the movies XD
That was fun!
Fran! You should work with Grand Illusions on a video! He has a large collection of mechanical and electronic toys, I'm certain he'd have something interesting that would be in need of repair. Even just a tear down and explaination of the inner workings would be tremendously entertaining.
Love it!
So cute!
Better yet were the pen erasers for really cleaning the solid contacts. Bonus was having a round wheel and a brush all in one. :)
I remember also using typewriter erasers (when you could still buy them) to clean contacts. They were more abrasive than pencil erasers, since they basically removed the top layer of paper (along with the ink from the typewriter ribbon).
Weird thing - last week I came across one of these that I bought in the 90s (at the defunct Museum of the Moving Image in London, where I worked) and it was also dead. I have it on my bench waiting for repair - two projects down the line - so now I know what's in store for me! Many thanks for posting.
One pencil should be all you need to bring it back. Good luck!
Cool gizmo!
I had one like the model that is similar to that one but with a handle. It had a clip of Star Trek... I bought it in the 90s at a thrift shop and wanted to edit bits of the special effects into my own Super 8 stuff. never got around to it, though.
Heyyy I remember having a toy just like that, after a bit of Googling it was an Action Man "VR Warrior" - really goofy-looking toy from the 90s that came with a little camera that played a tiny film that you could look at through the viewfinder. That was a real memory dredger there...
Aahh... I had the GAF View-Master with the dual sided cartridges when I was a kid in the '90s. I loved it! Recently I found a real (Chinon I think, I need to dig it out from my giant pile of trash-picked electronic junk :-)) and a toy German made toy projector. Both need some repairs, I should try to fix them.
I had a hand crank version as a child...I remember it came with Felix the Cat.
The grayish white ink erasers make great contact cleaners.
I also had a lot of Flip - It books as a child...as basic form of animation as you can get.
As I recall, the Cineroc camera for Estes Rockets used a film loop ( I never had one, but a friend did). Maybe 20 seconds worth of film?
I had Cameroc because I could develop the film in the school photo lab..
I like little oddball gizmos like that projector. I may be too easily amused, but I'm never bored..you have a lot of cool stuff..
Great repair. I love it when somebody repairs a clever gadget rather than just tossing it
That was awesome, thank you. I wonder what people will think of this technology in 500 years time?
👍👍👍
oh wow...I used to have on of those!
the white erasers were the best on the slot cars and tracks.
That looks like a re-release of the "Sneak Previews" movie player I had in the late 80's
I remember having a couple as a kid, I wish I had kept them. I have one I bought at a space museum in New Mexico, it's a shuttle launch
Excellent =D
Well, that brought back some memories. LOL
All the best people have a Davy Jones EEVBlog multimeter ... just sayin. 😉
Re Erasers - The INK end of the eraser has that little more abrasive composition.
I had one of those as a kid - with a loop from Terminator 2
I had one of those I bought mine back in 1990. I was in the 6th grade. I also had 6 cartridges superman, Betty Boop, Alien,scooby doo, batman, and heathcliff
It even sounds like a real projector!
Fran, would you be interested in a flat tape dictation machine from the 1960s. They are incredibly rare and this one mostly works. They used a flat tape about 5" wide that when done recording could be cut and mailed or staples to the file. This one has some pretty neat history behind it.
I love the translucent plastic for that hip modern look! 🤭
I saw Fran on the film.
Hi, Fran~ ^^
whoa I had a chartreuse green one of these! it has some old Fleischer like cartoon in it. I barely remember the scene but it was like a hobo and a single bean or something and he tries to eat it.
I live in the UK and I rember buying one of those as a tranager in toy shop it had film with cars on mine am sure
For someone living in the UK your grammar is none too impressive
I have the Mickey Mouse "The Storm" in blue plastic somewhere. I haven't seen it for years. I remember it was unusually spooky, with menacing trees and I think a castle door with a moat. Mickey is not having a good time in the clip. Get that one if you can. I remember it was entertaining.
Love the intro song
Loved the Intro.... :)
I had one of the Apollo landing from The MOMI in London.
Old school GIFs
Groove Movie time..
I had one of those as a kid. Circa 1989
I had one in the late 70s or early 80s which had a lamp in it and it would project onto the wall. I think it had a flying albatross movie, cartoon with some mice. Just a clip of it, not very long. I think it was the only movie I had.
I have a bunch of old Estes Cineroc rocket movies that this viewer would be perfect for.
I wonder how hard it is to do a reverse transfer. Turn an MPEG-4 from someone's phone into a two-minute (or less) physical film loop, then mail them a little reel like the ones used by Fran's device. Talk about skeumorphism!
Like early videotape, digital movies are now being archived on motion picture film..because it's the only thing they can be certain to be able to play in 50 or whatever years time.
I had totally forgotten about these. Seems I knew a few kids who had these in elementary but have completely forgotten who it was.
Cool video Fran! I had one one these that came with a clip from Terminator II!
T2 on Super 8, I want!
The scene with the T1000, a motorbike and a helicopter?
@@mattrigg5835 that's the one I had way back when.
yea i had one here in the UK ages ago lol
If you put light torch from the opposite side of the lens. The lens can project the picture on the wall. would not be a good result but is mini projector as well in a sense.
JUST after you said that you don't repair videos! This is an interesting film gadget, though!
I had the Fisher price version as a kid. The film cans look older than the viewer to me.
thank you..
I was kinda hoping that this was going to be a slick way to premier an alternative to the Zapruder film.
Fran, I used 000 steel wool to shine up our slot car track and my comedian brother would wait until he knew I was fully distracted and push the accelerator plunger to send current into the track and get the steel wool glowing orange - Ouch!!!
They still make toys with film strips in them. I took one apart recently, while I junked most of it, I kept the film loop as a technical momento. If it isn't film it is a very high quality digitally printed transparency in a film like loop. Of course this is still images, not motion pictures.
Hi I love watching your videos the very educational and you've also taught me out Solver properly alright so I just thought id let you know ok bye